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Notice how a few quick strokes make the hand resting on the ledge at right, then compare them with the more worked surface of the face.
This loosely painted half-length belongs with Fragonard’s so-called fantasy portraits, which in fact show friends and patrons from his circle. The sitter is unknown and may be an imagined type, with a ruff, padded shoulders and pointed beard that recall the early Baroque and Rubens, and the Art Institute links the figure to an actor painted by Domenico Fetti. It may be the portrait of a man in Spanish costume sold in Paris in 1780.
Oil on canvas · 80.3 × 64.7 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Rococo
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Portrait of a Man in Costume
- Artist
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806)
- Date
- c. 1767–68
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 80.3 × 64.7 cm (31 5/8 × 25 1/2 in.); Framed: 105.5 × 89.6 × 12.7 cm (41 1/2 × 35 1/4 × 5 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Mary and Leigh Block in honor of John Maxon
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.